1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an intra-vascular device and method. More particularly, the present invention relates to a stent for treatment of intra-vascular diseases.
2. Description of the Related Art
In stent deployment systems, a self-expanding stent is restrained within a sheath. After positioning of the stent at the desired location via fluoroscopic guidance, the physician retracts the sheath to deploy the stent, i.e., to expose the stent and allow it to self-expand.
Recapturable stents allow the stent to be recaptured after deployment of the recapturable stent has been initiated. More particularly, if the recapturable stent jumps or is otherwise positioned incorrectly as the physician begins to retract the sheath, the physician simply reverses the direction of the sheath and advances the sheath back over the recapturable stent to recapture the stent within the sheath. After the recapturable stent has been recaptured, the physician repositions the recapturable stent at the desired location and retracts the sheath to re-deploy the stent.
However, the human anatomy is tortuous by nature. Thus, during guidance of the recapturable stent to the desired location, the recapturable stent is subjected to significant bending and flexing. A conventional recapturable stent has practical limits to the allowed amount of bending. Avoiding extreme bending of the recapturable stent limits the range of anatomical variation in which the recapturable stent can be used. Additionally, a conventional recapturable stent is relatively non-conformal thus further limiting the range of anatomical variation in which the recapturable stent can be used.